Had a nice long run today, 10-1/2 miles with various dogs. I felt pretty good, that's my longest since December. I ran with my new Ultimate Direction Wasp hydration pack and was pretty impressed--it was comfortable and didn't bounce or slosh, with 1 liter of water. I'm going to be spending a lot of time with this thing on my back and it's good to know that.

"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"

"To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain

"The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.

11.5 miles today. Felt pretty good, much better than the 9.5 last weekend. My pace was about 15 seconds a mile faster and my HR was 9 BPM less. I spent some time recently scoping out the logistics for the Boston trip. I am starting to get very excited. There are some cool videos on youtube showing the course and I've been reading some race reports.

I skipped two runs this week, otoh, I did run on Monday. So I'm actually only skipping 1 run.

So why did I skip two runs? Well, after a 3-month lay off, I'm continuing with my Open University courses. And I always get into trouble figuring out when to study and when to run, cause mornings are best for studying, but if I don't run in the morning, chances are I don't run at all because the day gets away from me. Which ofcourse happened Thu and Sat. Choices, choices...

It's actually a no-brainer when I work (I run), but it's the days off that are a problem (Thu, Sat and Sun).

Dutchie I go running in the early morning, before my brain figures out what I'm up to.

Conditions were perfect, but it did get warm over the last hour or so.

Performance, not so perfect. Went out at 10, per the plan and nailed it all the way through 15, but my heart rate was near 90% by that point and I couldn't hold it. Slowed down, but couldn't get the heart rate down. Walked and couldn't get the heart rate down. Bottom line, an 19 minute positive split and a 4:39. If you told me to go out and run 10:37 I think I could have done it without a problem. I just aimed too high and fell short. Still a PR by 19 minutes and a lot of lessons learned. 3 or 4 miles on the schedule for Wednesday.

Thanks for the support. I may put a full race report together. If I do, I'll let the group know.

Congrats on the PR Brian! I know what you mean about the pace. I did the same thing at OBX. I went out with a very agressive goal pace and when I hit the wall at about 19 miles it went away real fast. I could have run my finish time easy if I had gone even pace, but going out so fast I was trashed for days. I know you really wanted that 10:00 min mile but you have got to be happy with cutting 19 mins off your PR, and what a great stepping stone for Country music marathon.